


Undercover! Again!

by Annide



Category: Limitless (TV)
Genre: M/M, Past Drug Use, Undercover
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-26
Updated: 2016-07-26
Packaged: 2018-07-27 00:10:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7595692
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Annide/pseuds/Annide
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Brian and Ike are sent on an undercover mission, but things don't exactly go as planned.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Undercover! Again!

**Author's Note:**

> Takes place some time after 1.17 Close Encounters

                "I have to go. We need the NZT for this mission."

                They were all in Naz's office, discussing who to send for an undercover mission. No one was comfortable sending the guy with no training out to do this possibly dangerous task.

                "We should've given him more fighting training. Because he's right, he has to go, but he still seems an irresponsible choice though unavoidable." Mike admitted.

                "Fine, he goes. But not alone, someone has to be there to protect him. Rebecca, why don't you go with him, pretend to be his girlfriend or something?" Naz suggested.

                "I can't, I have that other thing. You know, the classified one?"

                "Oh, that's right. Maybe we can send Boyle, make it a punishment for missing this meeting?"

                "His mother's sick, that wouldn't be very fair. He's probably with her right now." Brian didn't feel like having to spend this whole time with someone who resented being there in the first place. Sure, he would've loved working with Boyle, but not under these circumstances.

                "I'll go." Ike interjected. "It's already my job to protect him and I'd love a chance for undercover work."

                "Then it's decided. Brian and Ike will go undercover, and Boyle and Mike will work the case from here and be your back up. You'll be on your own boys, Rebecca and I have this classified case to go take care of. You think you can handle things without us for a few days?"

                "Of course, this case will be solved by the time you come back. Ike and I will make a great undercover team, you'll see."

                Brian's tone wasn't inspiring trust to Naz, but she knew the others could keep the grown boy in check. She and Rebecca left as Mike, Ike and Brian started planning the mission. Boyle joined them an hour later, his mother was in fact in need of him and that's why he'd been late.

                "Boyle, here you are, nice to see you. Unfortunately, Ike and I have to go, but Mike will fill you in."

 

                The undercover assignment was on the other side of the river, in New Jersey, and they decided driving there would be safer. Ike rented a car for the occasion. Most likely no one would see the car they drove, but they wanted to make a thorough job and cover everything just in case.

                The mission wasn't really dangerous in itself, but had the potential to turn bad. The FBI had received word that a high profile criminal would be present at a high school reunion and a big amount of civilians present during the entire operation made this risky. However, this was the first time they had any clue to that person's whereabouts other than by their crimes and they had no choice but to go for it. No one had ever seen this person's face and Brian and Ike's job would be to identify them. Most of the information they had were about the crimes committed, until they very recently learned about this reunion. They didn't know if the suspect was a man or a woman, a student or a teacher.

                Brian had read the files and looked through the yearbooks for the four years this class had been in high school. Ike was posing as one of the graduates they knew for a fact wouldn't be there. Brian had identified one that looked realistically like what Ike must have in high school. They reached the reception, which took place in the school's gym, pretty confident about the plan. They were prepared, they had solid stories for both of their identities and knew what they had to do.

                "Welcome back, Matthew! And who is that accompanying you?"

                That was the moment they realized despise all the preparation, all the reading about the suspect and the building of their individual identities, they forgot to think of the link between them. Ike hesitated. Naz and Rebecca would never forgive them if that mistake cost them the entire mission, how could they have been so stupid? He turned to Brian who smiled at him in a way that inspired nothing good.

                "I'm Ryan, his boyfriend."

                "Oh, nice to meet you. Have a good evening!"

                Brian took Ike's hand and led him toward the gym.

                "Why did you say you were my boyfriend?"

                "It's the first thing I could think of, why? Does my hand in yours make you uncomfortable?"

                "No."

                Ike answered immediately. He sounded just a little too defensive. It wasn't really discomfort, it seemed more like some kind of embarrassment, the kind you feel when you actually enjoy something but would never dare admit it to anyone. Brian wouldn't have noticed the subtlety of it if he hadn't been on NZT and so he decided to simply try and build Ike's confidence through the evening, let him feel more at ease with him so that maybe he'd open up to him more with time.

                While Brian was busy enjoying himself, thinking this undercover thing would be a lot of fun, Ike was worrying. The criminal they were after had never shown any sign of violence, but who knew what would happen if they were confronted or simply noticed the presence of the FBI? This mission could become dangerous and Ike was there to protect Brian, a task he would normally be entirely qualified to do. Except he was currently unable to think about anything other than the fact that Brian's hand was in his and how it felt so natural like they were always meant to hold each other. What if he tried making conversation to distract himself?

                "So, any clue who it might be yet?"

                "No, all the information we have about what they look like tells us is they're average height. We won't find them without talking to people, let's catch up with your old classmates!"

                This enthusiasm for the mission, that smile and the way he pulled him forward right into the crowd only confirmed what Ike feared: he was falling for Brian Finch.

                "Matt! I'm Jesse, we had physics class together. I had that huge crush on your lab partner, remember?"

                "Yeah, Jesse, how have you been?"

                "Great, here let me show you a picture of my kid. She caught chicken pox, so my wife had to stay home with her tonight. I see you're not alone, is that why you were never that into Jessica yourself?"

                "I guess it is. Here's Ryan, my boyfriend."

                It sounded weird to use this word to describe Brian, but Ike liked it. He hoped one day, he could do it while using their real identities.

                "How long have you two been together?"

                "Almost a year, but we're already practically living together. I don't even remember the last time Matt went back to his own place." Brian interjected.

                "That's great, and it was nice to catch up, Matt, but I see the guys from the volleyball team over there. I have to go."

                Jesse left and Ike and Brian exchanged looks. They were glad this man didn't have more memories to reminisce about with Matthew.

                "I think it went well. That dude totally thought you were his old classmate."

                "At least I look the part good enough."

                They kept mingling with people, discussing, pretending to be trying to catch up with them as Brian looked for tells from their criminal.

                "Remember that party in eleventh grade?" Brian heard someone say as they walked across the room.

 

                _Brian woke up in white room with tubes and wires on his arms and chest plugged to machines and bags of liquid. He remembered the party as a blur. There were people, music, lights, alcohol and drugs. And he enjoyed all of it. He had no idea how much of it, but his presence in a hospital bed seemed to lead toward too much._

_No one was around. Brian would've expected his family to be there waiting for him to wake up, but neither of his parents were sitting at his bedside. After nurses noticed he was awake, doctors came by to check him out and make sure he was doing fine. Someone told him he had been out for 30 hours. His father had only been gone  to get a cup of coffee, he'd tried not to leave his side all this time, but needed something to stay awake._

_When Dennis came back, he explained that Brian's mother was home with Rachel. They didn't want to bring his little sister here until he woke up. They didn't want her to see him unconscious, this had been scary enough already._

_"Brian, you can't keep going like this. What were you thinking? Partying all night, drinking alcohol, taking drugs? You will fail eleventh grade and, if you keep at it, you won't make it to your 17th birthday."_

_"I'm sorry, dad."_

_"You think 'I'm sorry' is going to fix it? You overdosed, Brian, you almost died. You would've died if one of those kids at that party hadn't been sober enough to have the sense to call 911 right away."_

_Brian didn't know what to say. He thought he had it under control. He never thought he would ever overdose. He thought it only happened to other people, not to him._

_"Honestly, Brian, I don't know where your mother and I went wrong with you. Your siblings are doing great. Your brother's in college, your sister is getting good grades, but you, you'll have to repeat your junior year. You're doing drugs and you don't seem to care about anything other than that band of yours."_

_"I love music. I don't like school, I'm not good at it. But I can play guitar and sing well. I just want to do something I'm good at. Something that makes me happy."_

_"I understand that, Brian, but you're 16, you have to go to school. Maybe if you studied more and stopped the drugs, you could get grades, if not as good as your siblings', at least some that would allow you to pass."_

_"I don't know if I can do that."_

_"Of course you can, and you have to. I'm telling you. No more drugs."_

_Brian had to spend two more weeks at the hospital to detox from  drugs. His parents and sister kept a close watch on him after that, scared he would take drugs and overdose again._

 

                 "We have to go. I can't do this."

                Brian had lost its excitement for the mission. He wasn't calm about all this anymore, his entire body was shaking and sweat was running down his face.

                "What's going on? Do you know who it is? Have you figured it out?"

                "Figured out what? What are you talking about?"

                "The mission, Brian, what we're here for, the criminal we have to find. Seriously, what's going on?"

                Brian had completely forgotten all about what they were doing at this high school reunion in the first place. He took Ike's hand and started looking around, frantically asking people questions, trying to find this criminal as fast as possible. Until Ike pulled him out into the hallway.

                "What the hell are you doing?"

                "I'm trying to find our guy, or gal."

                "You look insane, what's wrong with you?"

                "Can we just get this over with and I'll tell you after?"

                "No, we can't. You're ruining the mission, we'll get spotted and civilians could get hurt."

                "Then let's go now, this was a mistake. I can't do this."

                "Why? You were fine a minute ago."

                "I know, but this guy said something about eleventh grade and it triggered these memories. I should never have come here. I thought I could just come to a high school reunion and it would be fine like it wouldn't bring back all these memories? My mom's right. My job is to take a drug, how is this good? I'm clearly not making smart decisions."

                "Brian, you're doing okay. You have a stable job, friends, you're helping make the country safer. This is good. Maybe some of it is coming from a drug, but a lot of it is coming from you. Maybe this mission wasn't a good idea, but we all make bad decisions sometimes, don't put this entire thing down because of one bad night."

                "You don't know anything about me, you don't know, Ike. Just leave me alone for a while. Oh, and I'm pretty sure the criminal's that woman over there who keeps checking the memorabilia again and again. Call Mike and Boyle and take care of it. I need some air. I'll be waiting by the car."

                Ike looked as Brian walked away. He was worried for him. He didn't know what happened, but as he called Mike for back up, he promised himself to find out when all would be over.

 

                Brian sat on the front of the car, thinking about what it was like back then. It was so hard to go to school every day and fail, when all he wanted to do was play music. He was good, the band was good, but their big break never came. Maybe that's why he'd gotten into drugs, because somewhere inside, he knew it was never going to happen. He knew that music was just a dream they had as teenagers and they would never really make a life out of it. And it scared the shit out of him, because he wasn't good at anything else, and nothing else made him as happy as playing music with his friends did.

                As he watched FBI vehicles park in front of the school with Mike and Boyle leading a few agents in, Brian realized he had finally found something that made him happy. He loved solving crimes and catching bad guys. He loved working with Rebecca, Mike, Ike, Boyle and Naz, all of them. He was happy at the FBI. He felt like he was making a difference, like people needed him and he was good at something. Sometimes, he even felt like some of it wasn't just because of the NZT.

                "Brian, you were right. It was her. We caught her, Mike and Boyle are bringing her in. It's over. Are you okay? Do you want me to give you a ride home right now or do you still need some more fresh air?"

                "I had a drug overdose in high school. I thought I had it all under control, but I was in a bad place, I was taking drugs and one night at some party, I took too much. Something someone said in there reminded me of it and I just... I'm sorry."

                "It's alright. I didn't know. I understand now why your mom got so angry when she learned about the NZT."

                "Yeah. Anyway, I'm better now. And you're right, I love working at the FBI. I love solving crimes and I love the people there."

                "Glad to hear it. So are you ready to go home now?"

                "I think I'd like to stay a little while longer and go back inside."

                "Go inside, why?"

                "You'll see."

                Brian smirked, grabbed his hand and pulled him back toward the gym where slow music was now playing. The reunion was coming to an end soon and everyone was dancing. Without letting go of Ike's hand, Brian put his second arm around his waist and started swaying them to the rhythm of the music. Ike smiled, this night had been full of surprises, but it brought them a lot closer, he thought as he let his head rest against Brian's cheek.


End file.
